Animal Welfare Legislation Workshop REPORT

​Dean Rowland and myself attended the Animal Welfare Legislation Workshop on Monday 20th February at the offices of the DEDJTR in Atwood.

1. A number of different organisations attended the workshop : Dog Victoria and other Dog organisations, The Feline association (Cats), Equine Association including a Horse dentist, Various Wildlife associations and wildlife shelters and Darren Macfarlane from the Budgerigar Association and ourselves representing Aviculture.
2. DEDJTR have conducted a number of other workshops with different interest groups i.e. Local Councils (Enforcement officers) A group of solicitors, Veterinary representatives, Wildlife Enforcement officers (DEWLP), AND OTHER Animal related groups.
3.  Today’s workshop was about “identifying the areas for change” which is the first stage of the process, this will be followed by the other steps “Developing the regulations”, Developing the Codes and Standards and finally The Guidance and Education”

The aim is to develop a new Welfare Act (NOT NAMED TO DATE) that will eventually replace the Prevention of Cruelty to Animal Act 1986 (POCTA)
Timelines: They believe that any new legislation will not become law before the end of 2018.

Proposed Animal Welfare Framework:
+ Obligation                                        Things you must do
+Unregulated space                           Things you are must to do
+Regulated Activities                         Things you are free to do
+Regulated activities                          Things you can do as specified, including some things you must do
+Cruelty, Aggravated Cruelty            Things you must do

What the new act might look like i.e. Examples of how things might be done?
OBLIGATIONS
+Proposed to introduce a proactive “duty of care” approach through obligations
+Obligations will be based around the core needs of the animal
+Outcome based
+Obligations will be mandatory
+Possible obligations: Water, food, treatment, environment, handling, killing and general.

Potential -----------------Regulated Activities
Level      Category                        Competence
1              Prohibited                      Exempt by regulation, veterinary  practitioner for therapeutic reasons.
2             Acts of Vet care              To be performed only by a registered Vet
3            Para professional             Require a level of competency or possibly procedures by a third party
4             General Husbandry        Can be performed by a day to day person

Roles of Codes of Practice under POCTA
Currently there are 28 codes of practice i.e. Code of practice for Cage Birds, some of these code are over 20 years old and they will be replaced
Need to identify minimum standard going forward.
 
General comment on the workshop:
There was a lot of confusion in the morning as the session seemed to be pitched at bureaucrats , after further questioning things became clearer. Generally the groups thought the day was about reviewing the currently legislation “What’s working “ and “What needs changing” as we found out the day was pitched at a high level “The first stage” Developing the act. During the day one of the participants sort assurances that these new changes to the legislation were not being driven by “Animal liberationist”
In summary it is extremely important that  “Aviculturalists” are part of the ongoing consulting/review  process as this new legislation can have significant impact on our hobby in the future.

David Renshaw & Dean Rowlands